ABSTRACT
The word resilience is originally a metallurgy term that characterizes the ability of a metal to be stressed (e.g., bent or twisted) and then to rebound to its original form when that stress is no longer applied. As evidenced by this volume, the construct of resilience has become increasingly used by psychologists and psychiatrists to describe similar properties in people—the ability to withstand stress and to rebound to pre-stress levels of functioning when the stress is over. Although this conceptualization is not necessarily shared by all resilience investigators (e.g., Bonanno, 2004), it does illustrate one perspective that has pervaded research in resilience, as well as conceptions of resilience by lay people.
